Bio

Roland Paris is University Research Chair in International Security and Governance, and an Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, at the University of Ottawa. He is a scholar, commentator, and periodic practitioner of international affairs.

His research focuses on international security and peacebuilding, though has also written extensively on Canadian and US foreign policy, and on the challenges of maintaining a rules-based international order. His writings have appeared in leading academic outlets and have won international citations and prizes, including the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order.

Paris has taken several leaves from academe to work in government, most recently as Senior Advisor to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, helping to launch the new government's foreign policy. His previous government positions have included appointments in the Privy Council Office (cabinet office) of the Canadian government, the Canadian foreign ministry, and the Federal-Provincial Relations Office, where he worked on constitutional affairs. He also served as Director of Research at the Conference Board of Canada, the country's largest think tank.

Shortly after arriving at the University of Ottawa in 2006, he founded the Centre for International Policy Studies, a leading centre for analysis and debate of foreign affairs in Canada, which he directed until 2015. Prior to joining the University of Ottawa, he was Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Colorado at Boulder from 1998 to 2003, and Visiting Researcher the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC.

In 2012, he was appointed a non-resident Global Ethics Fellow by the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs in New York. In 2012-13, he was Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Political Studies (Sciences-Po) in Paris. In 2014, he was appointed by the Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to a 10-member international panel of experts to advise on the future of the transatlantic partnership.

Paris has won four teaching awards for teaching and two for public service. He sits on the editorial boards of six scholarly journals, and regularly provides analysis and commentary on international affairs to national and international media. He is also a Fellow of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute and has served on the board of directors of several organizations, including the World University Service of Canada, the Academic Council on the United Nations System, and the Conference of Defence Associations Institute.

Paris holds a Ph.D. from Yale University, an M.Phil. from the University of Cambridge, and a B.A. from the University of Toronto. He lives in Ottawa with his spouse and three children.